Guide to Case Analysis
GUIDE TO CASE ANALYSIS If you work in groups to analyze case studies, you also will learn about
CASE ANALYSIS
In most courses, students use cases about actual companies to practice
strategic analysis and to gain some experience in the tasks of crafting
and implementing strategy.
A case sets forth, in a factual manner, the events and organizational
circumstances surrounding a particular managerial situation. A case
study also presents an account of what happened to a business or
industry over a number of years. It chronicles the events that
managers had to deal with, such as changes in the competitive
environment, and charts the managers’ response, which usually
involved changing the business - or corporate-level strategy. It puts
readers at the scene of the action and familiarizes them with all the
relevant circumstances.
A case can concern a whole industry, a single organization, or some
part of an organization; the organization involved can be either profit
seeking or not-for-profit. The essence of the student’s role in case
analysis is to diagnose and size up the situation described in the case
and then to recommend appropriate action steps.
Instructors may assign an individual, but more commonly a group, to
analyze the case before the whole class. The individual or group
probably will be responsible for a thirty- to forty-minute presentation
of the case to the class. That presentation must cover the issues
involved, the problems facing the company, and a series of
recommendations for resolving the problems. The discussion then will
be thrown open to the class, and you will have to defend your ideas.
Through such discussions and presentations, you will experience how
to convey your ideas effectively to others. Remember that a great deal
of managers’ time is spent in these kinds of situations, presenting their
ideas and engaging in discussion with other managers, who have their
own views about what is going on. Thus, you will experience in the
classroom the actual process of what goes on in a business setting, and
this will serve you well in your future career.
Prepared by Prof. Edward M. De Leon
the group process involved in working as a team. When people work in
groups, it is often difficult to schedule time and allocate responsibility
for the case analysis. There are always group members who shirk their
responsibilities and group members who are so sure of their own ideas
that they try to dominate the group’s analysis. Most business
negotiations take place in groups, however, and it is best if you learn
about these problems now.
THE USE OF CASES
A student of business with tact
Absorbed many answers he lacked.
But acquiring a job, He said with a sob,
“How does one fit answer to fact?”
The foregoing limerick was used some years ago by Professor Charles
Gragg1 to characterize the plight of business students who had no
exposure to cases.
The facts are that the mere act of listening to lectures and sound
advice about managing does little for anyone’s management skills and
that the accumulated managerial wisdom cannot effectively be passed
on by lectures and assigned readings alone. If anything had been
learned about the practice of management, it is that a storehouse of
ready-made textbook answers does not exist. Each managerial
situation has unique aspects, requiring its own diagnosis, judgment,
and tailor-made actions. Cases provide would-be managers with a
valuable way to practice wrestling with the actual problems of actual
managers in actual companies.
The case approach to strategic analysis is, first and foremost, an
exercise in learning by doing. Because cases provide you with detailed
information about conditions and problems of different industries and
companies, your task of analyzing company after company and
situation after situation has the twin benefit of boosting your
1
Charles I. Gragg, “Because Wisdom Can’t Be Told,” in The Case Method at
the Harvard Business School, ed. M.P. McNair (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1954),
p. 11
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Guide to Case Analysis
analytical skills and exposing you to the ways companies and managers
actually do things.
Most college students have limited managerial backgrounds and only
fragmented knowledge about companies and real-life strategic
situations. Cases help substitute for on-the-job experience by (1)
giving you broader exposure to a variety of industries, organizations,
and strategic problems; (2) forcing you to assume a managerial role (as
opposed to that of just an onlooker); (3) providing a test of how to
apply the tools and techniques of strategic management; and (4)
asking you to come up with pragmatic managerial action plans to deal
with the issues at hand.
OBJECTIVES OF CASES ANALYSIS
Using cases to learn is a powerful way for you to accomplish five
things2:
1. Increase your understanding of what managers should and
should not do in guiding a business to success.
2. Build your skills in sizing up company resource strengths and
weaknesses and in conducting strategic analysis in a variety of
industries and competitive situations.
3. Get valuable practice in identifying strategic issues that need
to be addressed, evaluating strategic alternatives, and
formulating workable plans of action.
4. Enhance your sense of business judgment, as opposed to
uncritically accepting the authoritative crutch of the professor
or “back-of-the-book” answers.
5. Gaining in-depth exposure to different industries and
companies, thereby acquiring something close to actual
business experience.
2
D. R. Schoen and Philip A. Sprague, “What is the Case Method?,” in The Case
Method at the Harvard Business School, ed. M.P. McNair (New York: McGraw-
Hill, 1954), p. 78, 79
Prepared by Prof. Edward M. De Leon
Moreover, cases prove valuable in a course for several reasons. First,
cases provide you, the student, with experience of organizational
problems that you probably have not had the opportunity to
experience firsthand. In a relatively short period of time, you will have
the chance to appreciate and analyze the problems faced by many
different companies and to understand how managers tried to deal
with them.
Second, cases illustrate what you have learned. The meaning and
implication of this information are made clearer when they are applied
to case studies. The theory and concepts help reveal what is going on
in the companies studied and allow you to evaluate the solutions that
specify companies adopted to deal with their problems. Consequently,
when you analyze cases, you will be like a detective who, with a set of
conceptual tools, probes what happened and what or who was
responsible and then marshals the evidence that provides the solution.
Top managers enjoy the thrill of testing their problem-solving abilities
in the real world. It is important to remember, after all, that no one
knows what the right answer is. All that managers can do is to make
the best guess. In fact, managers say repeatedly that they are happy if
they are right only half the time in solving strategic problems.
Management is an uncertain game, and using cases to see how theory
can be put into practice is one way of improving your skills of
diagnostic investigation.
Third, case studies provide you with the opportunity to participate
in class and to gain experience in presenting your ideas to others.
Instructors may sometimes call on students as a group to identify what
is going on in a case and through classroom discussion the issues in and
solutions to the case problem will reveal themselves. In such a
situation, you will have to organize your views and conclusions so that
you can present them to the class. Your classmates may have analyzed
the issues differently from you, and they will want you to argue your
points before they will accept your conclusions; so be prepared for
debate. This is how decisions are made in the actual business world.
If you understand that these are the objectives of case analysis, you
are less likely to be consumed with curiosity about “the answer to the
case.” Students who have grown comfortable with and accustomed to
textbook statements of fact and definitive lecture notes are often
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Guide to Case Analysis
frustrated when discussions about a case do not produce concrete
answers.
Usually, case discussions produce good arguments for more than one
course of action. Differences of opinion nearly always exist. Thus,
should a class discussion conclude without a strong, unambiguous
consensus on what do to, don't grumble too much when you are not
told what the answer is or what the company actually did. Just
remember that in the business world answers don't come in conclusive
black-and-white terms. There are nearly always several feasible
courses of action and approaches, each of which may work out
satisfactorily.
Moreover, in the business world, when one elects a particular course
of action, there is no peeking at the back of a book to see if you have
chosen the best thing to do and no one to turn to for a provably
correct answer. The only valid test of management action is results. If
the results of an action turn out to be “good,” the decision to take it
may be presumed “right.” If not, then the action chosen was “wrong”
in the sense that it didn’t work out.
Hence, the important thing for a student to understand in case
analysis is that the managerial exercise of identifying, diagnosing, and
recommending builds your skills; discovering the right answer or
finding out what actually happened is no more than frosting on the
cake. Even if you learn what the company did, you can’t conclude that
it was necessarily right or best. All that can be said is ‘here is what
they did’.
The point is this: The purpose of giving you a case assignment is not to
cause you to run to the library or surf the Internet to discover what
the company actually did but, rather, to enhance your skills in sizing
up situations and developing your managerial judgment about what
needs to be done and how to do it. The aim of case analysis is for you
to bear the strains of thinking actively, of offering your analysis, of
proposing action plans, and of explaining and defending your
assessments this is how cases provide you with meaningful practice at
being a manager.
Prepared by Prof. Edward M. De Leon
PREPARING A CASE FOR CLASS DICUSSION
If this is your first experience with the case method, you may have to
reorient your study habits. Unlike lecture courses where you can get
by without preparing intensively for each class and where you have
latitude to work assigned readings and reviews of lecture notes into
your schedule, a case assignment requires conscientious preparation
before class. You will not get much out of hearing the class discuss a
case you haven't read, and you certainly won’t be able to contribute
anything yourself to the discussion. What you have got to do to get
ready for class discussion of a case is to study the case, reflect
carefully on the situation presented, and develop some reasoned
thoughts. Your goal in preparing the case should be to end up with
what you think is a sound, well-supported analysis of the situation and
a sound, defensible set of recommendations about which managerial
actions need to be taken.
The purpose of the case study is to let you apply the concepts you've
learned when you analyze the issues facing a specific company. To
analyze a case study, therefore, you must examine closely the issues
with which the company is confronted. Most often you will need to
read the case several times - once to grasp the overall picture of what
is happening to the company and then several times more to discover
and grasp the specific problems.
To prepare a case for class discussion, the following is a suggested
approach:
1. Read the case through rather quickly for familiarity. The
initial reading should give you the general flavor of the
situation and indicate which issue or issues are involved. If
your instructor has provided you with study questions for the
case, now is the time to read them carefully.
2. Read the case a second time. On this reading, try to gain full
command of the facts. Begin to develop some tentative
answers to the study questions your instructor has provided. If
your instructor has elected not to give you assignment
questions, then start forming your own picture of the overall
situation being described.
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Guide to Case Analysis
3. Study all the exhibits carefully. Often, there is an important
story in the numbers contained in the exhibits. Expect the
information in the case exhibits to be crucial enough to
materially affect your diagnosis of the situation.
4. Decide what the strategic issues are. Until you have
identified the strategic issues and problems in the case, you
don’t know what to analyze, which tools and analytical
techniques are called for, or otherwise how to proceed. At
times the strategic issues are clear either being stated in the
case or else obvious from reading the case.
5. Start your analysis of the issues with some number
crunching. A big majority of strategy cases call for some kind
of number crunching calculating assorted financial ratios to
check out the company’s financial condition and recent
performance, calculating growth rates of sales or profits or
unit volume, checking out profit margins and the makeup of
the cost structure, and understanding whatever revenue-cost-
profit relationships are present.
6. Use whichever tools and techniques of strategic analysis are
called for. Strategic analysis is not just a collection of
opinions; rather, it entails application of a growing number of
powerful tools and techniques that cut beneath the surface
and produce important insight and understanding of strategic
situations. Every case assigned is strategy related and contains
an opportunity to usefully apply the weapons of strategic
analysis.
7. Check out conflicting opinions and make some judgments
about the validity of all the data and information provided.
Many times cases report views and contradictory opinions
(after all, people don’t always agree on things, and different
people see the same things in different ways). Forcing you to
evaluate the data and information presented in the case helps
you develop your powers of inference and judgment. Asking
you to resolve conflicting information “comes with the
territory” because a great many managerial situations entail
Prepared by Prof. Edward M. De Leon
opposing points of view, conflicting trends, and sketchy
information.
8. Support your diagnosis and opinions with reasons and
evidence. The most important things to prepare for are your
answers to the question “Why?” For instance, if after studying
the case you are of the opinion that the company’s managers
are doing a poor job, then it is your answer to “Why?” that
establishes just how good your analysis of the situation is.
Prepare answers that include all the reasons and number-
crunching evidence you can muster to support your diagnosis.
9. Develop an appropriate action plan and set of
recommendations. Diagnosis divorced from corrective action
is sterile. The test of a manager is always to convert sound
analysis into sound actions that will produce the desired
results. Hence, the final and most telling step in preparing a
case is to develop an action agenda for management that lays
out a set of specific recommendations on what to do. Bear in
mind that proposing realistic, workable solutions is far
preferable to casually tossing out off-the-top-of-your-head
suggestions. Be prepared to argue why your recommendations
are more attractive than other courses of action that are
open.
Generally, detailed analysis of a case study should include eight areas:
1. The history, development, and growth of the company over
time
2. The identification of the company's internal strengths and
weaknesses
3. The nature of the external environment surrounding the
company
4. A SWOT analysis
5. The kind of corporate-level strategy pursued by the company
6. The nature of the company's business-level strategy
7. The company's structure and control systems and how they
match its strategy
8. Recommendations
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Guide to Case Analysis

To analyze a case, you need to apply what you've learned to each of Information system competencies Inadequate information systems?
these areas. The succeeding discussion is a summary of the steps you Human resource competencies? Inadequate human resources?
can take to analyze the case material for each of the eight points we Brand name reputation? Loss of brand name capital?
just noted. Portfolio management skills? Growth without direction?
Cost of differentiation advantage? Bad portfolio management?
1. Analyze the company's history, development, and growth. A New-venture management Loss of corporate direction?
convenient way to investigate how a company's past strategy expertise? Infighting among divisions?
and structure affect it in the present is to chart the critical Appropriate management style? Loss of corporate control?
incidents in its history - that is, the events that were the most Appropriate organizational Inappropriate organizational
unusual or the most essential for its development into the structure? structure and control systems?
company it is today. Some of the events have to do with its Appropriate control systems? High conflict and politics?
founding, its initial products, how it makes new-product Ability to manage strategic Poor financial management?
market decisions, and how it developed and chose functional change? Others?
competencies to pursue. Its entry into new businesses and Well-developed corporate
shifts in its main lines of business are also important strategy?
milestones to consider. Good financial management?
Others?
2. Identify the company's internal strengths and weaknesses.
Once the historical profile is completed, you can begin the Potential environmental Potential environmental threats
SWOT analysis. Use all the incidents you have charted to opportunities
develop an account of the company's strengths and weaknesses
as they have emerged historically. Examine each of the value Expand core business(es)? Attacks on core business(es)?
creation functions of the company, and identify the functions Exploit new market segments? Increases in domestic
in which the company is currently strong and currently weak. Widen new market segments? competition?
Some companies might be weak in marketing; some might be Extend cost or differentiation Increases in foreign competition?
strong in research and development. Make lists of these advantage? Change in consumer taste?
strengths and weaknesses. The SWOT checklist gives examples Diversify into new growth Fall in barriers to entry?
of what might go in these lists. businesses? Rise in new or substitute
Expand into foreign markets? products?
SWOT Checklist Apply R&D skills in new areas? Increase in industry rivalry?
Enter new related businesses? New forms of industry
Potential internal strengths Potential internal weaknesses Vertically integrate forward? competition?
Vertically integrate backward? Potential for takeover?
Many product lines? Obsolete, narrow product lines? Enlarge corporate portfolio? Existence for corporate raiders?
Broad market coverage? Rising manufacturing costs? Overcome barriers to entry? Increase in regional competition?
Manufacturing competence? Decline in R&D innovations? Reduce rivalry among Changes in demographic factors?
Good marketing skills? Poor marketing skills? competitors? Changes in economic factors?
Good materials management Poor materials management Make profitable new acquisitions? Downturn in economy?
systems? systems? Apply brand name capital in new Rising labor costs?
R&D skills and leadership? Loss of customer goodwill? areas? Slower market growth?

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Guide to Case Analysis
Seek fast market growth? Others?
Others?
3. Analyze the external environment. The next step is to
identify environmental opportunities and threats. Here you
should apply all information you have learned on industry and
macroenvironments, to analyze the environment the company
is confronting. Of particular importance at the industry level is
Porter’s five forces model and the stage of the life cycle
model. Which factors in the macroenvironment will appear
salient depends on the specific company being analyzed.
However, use each factor in turn (for instance, demographic
factors) to see whether it is relevant for the company in
question.
Porter’s Five Forces Model
(Developed by Michael E. Porter of the Harvard School of
Business Administration)
This model focuses on five forces that shape competition
within an industry.
1. The risk of new entry by potential competitors
2. The degree of rivalry among established companies within
an industry
3. The bargaining power of buyers
4. The bargaining power of suppliers
5. The threat of substitute products
Industry Life Cycle Model
This model is a useful tool for analyzing the effects of an
industry's evolution on competitive forces. Using the industry
life cycle model, we can identify five industry environments,
each linked to a distinct stage of an industry's evolution:
1. An embryonic industry environment
2. A growth industry environment
3. A shakeout industry environment
4. A mature industry environment
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5. A declining industry environment
Having done this analysis, you will have generated both an
analysis of the company's environment and a list of
opportunities and threats. The SWOT checklist lists some
common environmental opportunities and threats that you may
look for, but the list you generate will be specific to your
company.
4. Evaluate the SWOT analysis. Having identified the company's
external opportunities and threats as well as its internal
strengths and weaknesses, you need to consider what your
findings mean. That is, you need to balance strengths and
weaknesses against opportunities and threats. Is the company
in an overall strong competitive position? Can it continue to
pursue its current business- or corporate-level strategy
profitably? What can the company do to turn weaknesses into
strengths and threats into opportunities? Can it develop new
functional, business, or corporate strategies to accomplish this
change? Never merely generate the SWOT analysis and then
put it aside. Because it provides a succinct summary of the
company's condition, a good SWOT analysis is the key to all the
analyses that follow.
5. Analyze corporate-level strategy. To analyze a company's
corporate-level strategy, you first need to define the
company's mission and goals. Sometimes the mission and goals
are stated explicitly in the case; at other times you will have
to infer them from available information. The information you
need to collect to find out the company's corporate strategy
includes such factors as its line(s) of business and the nature of
its subsidiaries and acquisitions. It is important to analyze the
relationship among the company's businesses. Do they trade or
exchange resources? Are there gains to be achieved from
synergy? Alternatively, is the company just running a portfolio
of investments? This analysis should enable you to define the
corporate strategy that the company is pursuing (for example,
related or unrelated diversification or a combination of both)
and to conclude whether the company operates in just one
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Guide to Case Analysis
core business. Then, using your SWOT analysis, debate the
merits of this strategy.
Other issues should be considered as well. How and why has
the company's strategy changed over time? What is the
claimed rationale for any changes? Often it is a good idea to
analyze the company's businesses or products to assess its
situation and identify which divisions contribute the most to or
detract from its competitive advantage. It is also useful to
explore how the company has built its portfolio over time. Did
it acquire new businesses, or did it internally venture its own?
All these factors provide clues about the company and
indicate ways of improving its future performance.
6. Analyze business-level strategy. Once you know the
company's corporate-level strategy and have done the SWOT
analysis, the next step is to identify the company's business-
level strategy. If the company is a single-business company, its
business-level strategy is identical to its corporate-level
strategy. If the company is in many businesses, each business
will have its own business-level strategy. You will need to
identify the company's generic competitive strategy -
differentiation, low cost, or focus - and its investment
strategy, given the company's relative competitive position
and the stage of the life cycle. The company also may market
different products using different business-level strategies. For
example, it may offer a low-cost product range and a line of
differentiated products. Be sure to give a full account of a
company's business-level strategy to show how it competes.
Identifying the functional strategies that a company pursues to
build competitive advantage through superior efficiency,
quality, innovation, and customer responsiveness and to
achieve its business-level strategy is very important. The SWOT
analysis will have provided you with information on the
company's functional competencies. You should further
investigate its production, marketing, or research and
development strategy to gain a picture of where the company
is going. For example, pursuing a low-cost or a differentiation
strategy successfully requires a very different set of
Prepared by Prof. Edward M. De Leon
competencies. Has the company developed the right ones? If it
has, how can it exploit them further? Can it pursue both a low-
cost and a differentiation strategy simultaneously?
The SWOT analysis is especially important at this point if the
industry analysis, particularly Porter's model, has revealed the
threats to the company from the environment. Can the
company deal with these threats? How should it change its
business-level strategy to counter them? To evaluate the
potential of a company's business-level strategy, you must first
perform a thorough SWOT analysis that captures the essence
of its problems.
Once you complete this analysis, you will have a full picture of
the way the company is operating and be in a position to
evaluate the potential of its strategy. Thus, you will be able to
make recommendations concerning the pattern of its future
actions. However, first you need to consider strategy
implementation, or the way the company tries to achieve its
strategy.
7. Analyze structure and control systems. The aim of this
analysis is to identify what structure and control systems the
company is using to implement its strategy and to evaluate
whether that structure is the appropriate one for the
company. Different corporate and business strategies require
different structures. For example, does the company have the
right level of vertical differentiation (for instance, does it have
the appropriate number of levels in the hierarchy or
decentralized control?) or horizontal differentiation (does it
use a functional structure when it should be using a product
structure?)? Similarly, is the company using the right
integration or control systems to manage its operations? Are
managers being appropriately rewarded? Are the right rewards
in place for encouraging cooperation among divisions? These
are all issues that should be considered.
In some cases there will be little information on these issues,
whereas in others there will be a lot. Obviously, in analyzing
each case you should gear the analysis toward its most salient
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Guide to Case Analysis
issues. For example, organizational conflict, power, and
politics will be important issues for some companies. Try to
analyze why problems in these areas are occurring. Do they
occur because of bad strategy formulation or because of bad
strategy implementation?
Organizational change is an issue in many cases because the
companies are attempting to alter their strategies or
structures to solve strategic problems. Thus, as a part of the
analysis, you might suggest an action plan that the company in
question could use to achieve its goals. For example, you
might list in a logical sequence the steps the company would
need to follow to alter its business-level strategy from
differentiation to focus.
8. Make recommendations. The last part of the case analysis
process involves making recommendations based on your
analysis. Obviously, the quality of your recommendations is a
direct result of the thoroughness with which you prepared the
case analysis. The work you put into the case analysis will be
obvious to the professor from the nature of your
recommendations. Recommendations are directed at solving
whatever strategic problem the company is facing and at
increasing its future profitability. Your recommendations
should be in line with your analysis; that is, they should follow
logically from the previous discussion. For example, your
recommendation generally will center on the specific ways of
changing functional, business, and corporate strategy and
organizational structure and control to improve business
performance. The set of recommendations will be specific to
each case, and so it is difficult to discuss these
recommendations here. Such recommendations might include
an increase in spending on specific research and development
projects, the divesting of certain businesses, a change from a
strategy of unrelated to related diversification, an increase in
the level of integration among divisions by using task forces
and teams, or a move to a different kind of structure to
implement a new business-level strategy. Again, make sure
your recommendations are mutually consistent and are written
in the form of an action plan. The plan might contain a
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timetable that sequences the actions for changing the
company's strategy and a description of how changes at the
corporate level will necessitate changes at the business level
and subsequently at the functional level.
After following all these stages, you will have performed a thorough
analysis of the case and will be in a position to join in class discussion
or present your ideas to the class, depending on the format used by
your professor. Remember that you must tailor your analysis to suit
the specific issue discussed in your case. In some cases, you might
completely omit one of the steps in the analysis because it is not
relevant to the situation you are considering. You must be sensitive to
the needs of the case and not apply the framework we have discussed
in this section blindly. The framework is meant only as a guide and not
as an outline that you must use to do a successful analysis.
As long as you are conscientious in preparing your analysis and
recommendations, and have ample reasons, evidence, and arguments
to support your views, you shouldn’t fret unduly about whether what
you’ve prepared is the right answer to the case. In case analysis there
is rarely just one right approach or set of recommendations. Managing
companies and devising and implementing strategies are not such
exact sciences that there exists a single provably correct analysis and
action plan for each strategic situation. Of course, some analyses and
action plans are better than others; but, in truth, there’s nearly
always more than one good way to analyze a situation and more than
one good plan of action. So, if you have carefully prepared the case,
don’t lose confidence in the correctness of your work and judgment.
PARTICIPATING IN CLASS DISCUSSION OF A CASE ANALYSIS
Classroom discussions of cases are sharply different from attending a
lecture class. In a case class, students do most of the talking. The
instructor’s role is to solicit student participation, keep the discussion
on track, ask “Why?” often, offer alternative views, play the devil’s
advocate (if no students jump in to offer opposing views), and
otherwise lead the discussion. The students in the class carry the
burden for analyzing the situation and for being prepared to present
and defend their diagnoses and recommendations. Expect a classroom
environment, therefore, that calls for your size-up of the situation,
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Guide to Case Analysis
your analysis, what actions you would take, and why you would take
them.
Do not be dismayed if, as the class discussion unfolds, some insightful
things are said by your fellow classmates that you did not think of. It is
normal for views and analyses to differ and for the comments of others
in the class to expand your own thinking about the case. As the old
saying goes, “Two heads are better than one.” So it is to be expected
that the class as a whole will do a more penetrating and searching job
of case analysis than will any one person working alone. This is the
power of group effort, and its virtues are that it will help you see more
analytical applications, let you test your analyses and judgments
against those of your peers, and force you to wrestle with differences
of opinion and approaches.
To orient you to the classroom environment on the days a case
discussion is scheduled, the following is a list of things to expect:
1. Expect students to dominate the discussion and do most of the
talking. The case method enlists a maximum of individual
participation in class discussion. It is not enough to be present
as a silent observer; if every student took this approach, there
would be no discussion. (Thus, expect a portion of your grade
to be based on your participation in case discussions.)
2. Expect the instructor to assume the role of extensive
questioner and listener.
3. Be prepared for the instructor to probe for reasons and
supporting analysis.
4. Expect and tolerate challenges to the views expressed. All
students have to be willing to submit their conclusions for
scrutiny and rebuttal. Each student needs to learn to state his
or her views without fear of disapproval and to overcome the
hesitation of speaking out. Learning respect for the views and
approaches of others is an integral part of case analysis
exercises. But there are times when it is fine to swim against
the tide of majority opinion. In the practice of management,
there is always room for originality and unorthodox
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approaches. So while discussion of a case is a group process,
there is no compulsion for you or anyone else to cave in and
conform to group opinions and group consensus.
5. Don’t be surprised if you change your mind about some things
as the discussion unfolds. Be alert to how these changes affect
your analysis and recommendations (in the event you get
called on).
6. Expect to learn a lot from each case discussion; use what you
learned to be better prepared for the next case discussion.
There are several things you can do on your own to be good and look
good as a participant in class discussions:
1. Although you should do your own independent work and
independent thinking, don’t hesitate before (and after) class
to discuss the case with other students. In real life, managers
often discuss the company’s problems and situation with other
people to refine their own thinking.
2. In participating in the discussion, make a conscious effort to
contribute, rather than just talk. There is a big difference
between saying something that builds the discussion and
offering a long-winded, off-the-cuff remark that leaves the
class wondering what the point was.
3. Avoid the use of “I think,” “I believe,” and “I feel”; instead,
say, “My analysis shows” and “The company should do
because”. Always give supporting reasons and evidence for
your views; then your instructor won’t have to ask you “Why?”
every time you make a comment.
4. In making your points, assume that everyone has read the case
and knows what it says; avoid reciting and rehashing
information in the case instead, use the data and information
to explain your assessment of the situation and to support your
position.
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Guide to Case Analysis
Bring the notes you’ve prepared (usually two or three pages’ worth) to
class and rely on them extensively when you speak. There’s no way
you can remember everything off the top of your head especially the
results of your number crunching. To reel off the numbers or to
present all five reasons why, instead of one, you will need good notes.
When you have prepared thoughtful answers to the study questions
and use them as the basis for your comments, everybody in the room
will know you are well prepared, and your contribution to the case
discussion will stand out.
PREPARING A WRITTEN CASE ANALYSIS
Often, as part of your course requirements, you will need to present
your instructor with a written case analysis. This may be an individual
or a group report. Whatever the situation, there are certain guidelines
to follow in writing a case analysis that will improve the evaluation
your work will receive from your instructor. Before we discuss these
guidelines and before you use them, make sure that they do not
conflict with any directions your instructor has given you.
Preparing a written case analysis is much like preparing a case for
class discussion, except that your analysis must be more complete and
put in report form. Unfortunately, though, there is no ironclad
procedure for doing a written case analysis. This is because company
situations and management problems are so diverse that no one
mechanical way to approach a written case assignment always works.
The structure of your written report is critical. Generally, if you follow
the steps for analysis discussed in the previous section, you already
will have a good structure for your written discussion.
Your instructor may assign you a specific topic around which to
prepare your written report. Or, alternatively, you may be asked to do
a comprehensive written case analysis, where the expectation is that
you will (1) identify all the pertinent issues that management needs to
address, (2) perform whatever analysis and evaluation is appropriate,
and (3) propose an action plan and set of recommendations addressing
the issues you have identified. In going through the exercise of
identify, evaluate, and recommend, keep the following pointers in
mind.
Prepared by Prof. Edward M. De Leon
1. Identification. All reports begin with an introduction to the
case. In it you outline briefly what the company does, how it
developed historically, what problems it is experiencing, and
how you are going to approach the issues in the case write-up.
It is essential early on in your paper that you provide a sharply
focused diagnosis of strategic issues and key problems and that
you demonstrate a good grasp of the company's present
situation. Make sure you can identify the firm's strategy and
that you can pinpoint whatever strategy implementation issues
may exist. Consider beginning your paper with an overview of
the company’s situation, its strategy, and the significant
problems and issues that confront management. State
problems/issues as clearly and precisely as you can. Unless it is
necessary to do so for emphasis, avoid recounting facts and
history about the company (assume your professor has read the
case and is familiar with the organization).
Do this sequentially by writing, for example, “First, we discuss
the environment of Company X... Third, we discuss Company
X’s business-level strategy... Last, we provide
recommendations for turning around Company X’s business.”
2. Analysis and Evaluation. This is usually the hardest part of the
report. Analysis is hard work! In the second part of the case
write-up, the strategic-analysis section, do the SWOT analysis,
analyze and discuss the nature and problems of the company’s
business-level and corporate strategy, and then analyze its
structure and control systems. Check out the firm’s financial
ratios, its profit margins and rates of return, and its capital
structure, and decide how strong the firm is financially.
Similarly, look at marketing, production, managerial
competence, and other factors underlying the organization's
strategic successes and failures. Decide whether the firm has
valuable resource strengths and competencies and, if so,
whether it is capitalizing on them.
Check to see if the firm’s strategy is producing satisfactory
results and determine the reasons why or why not. Probe the
nature and strength of the competitive forces confronting the
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Guide to Case Analysis
company. Decide whether and why the firm’s competitive
position is getting stronger or weaker. Use the tools and
concepts you have learned about to perform whatever analysis
and evaluation is appropriate.
Make sure you use plenty of headings and subheadings to
structure your analysis. For example, have separate sections
on any important conceptual tool you use. Thus, you might
have a section on Porter’s five forces model as part of your
analysis of the environment. You might offer a separate
section on portfolio techniques when analyzing a company’s
corporate strategy. Tailor the sections and subsections to the
specific issues of importance in the case.
In writing your analysis and evaluation, bear in mind four
things:
a. You are obliged to offer analysis and evidence to back up
your conclusions. Do not rely on unsupported opinions,
over-generalizations, and platitudes as a substitute for
tight, logical argument backed up with facts and figures.
b. If your analysis involves some important quantitative
calculations, use tables and charts to present the
calculations clearly and efficiently. Don’t just tack the
exhibits on at the end of your report and let the reader
figure out what they mean and why they were included.
Instead, in the body of your report cite some of the key
numbers, highlight the conclusions to be drawn from the
exhibits, and refer the reader to your charts and exhibits
for more details.
c. Demonstrate that you have command of the strategic
concepts and analytical tools to which you have been
exposed. Use them in your report.
d. Your interpretation of the evidence should be reasonable
and objective. Be wary of preparing a one-sided argument
that omits all aspects not favorable to your conclusions.
Likewise, try not to exaggerate or overdramatize.
Prepared by Prof. Edward M. De Leon
Endeavor to inject balance into your analysis and to avoid
emotional rhetoric. Strike phrases such as “I think,” “I
feel,” and “I believe” when you edit your first draft and
write in “My analysis shows,” instead.
3. Recommendations. In the third part of the case write-up,
present your solutions and recommendations. The final
section of the written case analysis should consist of a set of
definite recommendations and a plan of action. Be
comprehensive, and make sure they are in line with the
previous analysis so that the recommendations fit together and
move logically from one to the next. The recommendations
section is very revealing because, as mentioned earlier, your
instructor will have a good idea of how much work you put into
the case from the quality of your recommendations.
Your set of recommendations should address all of the
problems/issues you identified and analyzed. If the
recommendations come as a surprise or do not follow logically
from the analysis, the effect is to weaken greatly your
suggestions of what to do. Obviously, your recommendations
for actions should offer a reasonable prospect of success.
High-risk, bet-the-company recommendations should be made
with caution. State how your recommendations will solve the
problems you identified. Be sure the company is financially
able to carry out what you recommend; also check to see if
your recommendations are workable in terms of acceptance by
the persons involved, the organization's competence to
implement them, and prevailing market and environmental
constraints. Try not to hedge or weasel on the actions you
believe should be taken.
By all means state your recommendations in sufficient detail
to be meaningful get down to some definite nitty-gritty
specifics. Avoid such unhelpful statements as "the organization
should do more planning" or “the company should be more
aggressive in marketing its product.” For instance, do not
simply say “the firm should improve its market position” but
state exactly how you think this should be done. Offer a
definite agenda for action, stipulating a timetable and
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Guide to Case Analysis
sequence for initiating actions, indicating priorities, and
suggesting who should be responsible for doing what.
In proposing an action plan, remember there is a great deal of
difference between, on the one hand, being responsible for a
decision that may be costly if it proves in error and, on the
other hand, casually suggesting courses of action that might be
taken when you do not have to bear the responsibility for any
of the consequences. A good rule to follow in making your
recommendations is: Avoid recommending anything you would
not yourself be willing to do if you were in management's
shoes. The importance of learning to develop good judgment
in a managerial situation is indicated by the fact that, even
though the same information and operating data may be
available to every manager or executive in an organization,
the quality of the judgments about what the information
means and which actions need to be taken does vary from
person to person.
Following this framework will provide a good structure for most
written reports, though obviously it must be shaped to fit the
individual case being considered. Some cases are about excellent
companies experiencing no problems. In such instances, it is hard to
write recommendations. Instead, you can focus on analyzing why the
company is doing so well, using that analysis to structure the
discussion. Following are some minor suggestions that can help make a
good analysis even better.
1. Do not repeat in summary form large pieces of factual
information from the case. The instructor has read the case
and knows what is going on. Rather, use the information in the
case to illustrate your statements, to defend your arguments,
or to make salient points. Beyond the brief introduction to the
company, you must avoid being descriptive; instead, you must
be analytical.
2. Make sure the sections and subsections of your discussion flow
logically and smoothly from one to the next. That is, try to
build on what has gone before so that the analysis of the case
study moves toward a climax. This is particularly important for
Prepared by Prof. Edward M. De Leon
group analysis, because there is a tendency for people in a
group to split up the work and say, "I’ll do the beginning, you
take the middle, and I’ll do the end." The result is a choppy,
stilted analysis because the parts do not flow from one to the
next, and it is obvious to the instructor that no real group
work has been done.
3. Avoid grammatical and spelling errors. They make the paper
sloppy.
4. In some instances, cases dealing with well-known companies
don’t include up-to-date research because it was not available
at the time the case was written. If possible, do a search for
more information on what has happened to the company in
subsequent years. Following are sources of information for
performing this search:

The World Wide Web is the place to start your
research. Very often you can download copies of a
company’s annual report from its Web site, and many
companies also keep lists of press releases and articles
that have been written about them. Thoroughly search
the company’s Web site for information such as the
company’s history and performance, and download all
relevant information at the beginning of your project.

Annual reports often provide an organization chart.
Companies themselves provide information if you write
and ask for it.

Fortune, BusinessWeek, Economist, and Forbes have
many articles on companies featured in most cases.

Standard & Poor’s industry reports provide detailed
information about the competitive conditions facing
the company's industry. Be sure to look at this journal.
5. Sometimes instructors hand out questions for each case to help
you in your analysis. Use these as a guide for writing the case
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Guide to Case Analysis
analysis. They often illuminate the important issues that have
to be covered in the discussion.
It goes without saying that your report should be well organized and
well written. Great ideas amount to little unless others can be
convinced of their merit this takes tight logic, the presentation of
convincing evidence, and persuasively written arguments. However, if
you follow the guidelines in this section, you should be able to write a
thorough and effective evaluation.
PRESENTING A CASE ANALYSIS FOR CLASS DISCUSSION
The phrase, “there is no substitute for preparation,” has an important
significance in effective class and case presentations. Let us discuss
the elements of a good report so that you can properly prepare your
case analysis.
1. Limit your subject. Do not try to do too much. Many people
make the mistake of trying to cover too much material.
Consequently, their reports become lists of generalizations
with neither depth, emphasis, nor direction. Limit your scope.
Provide handouts to be able to expand your scope. Summarize
your findings at the introduction and closure of your report.
2. Divide your presentation into manageable steps. A good
report will divide the subject into its parts and shows the
relationship of these to each other and the whole. Illustrate
succinctly the process of analysis and synthesis. Determine the
structure that provides a useful organization for your purpose.
Organize your report for an accurate, concise, and purposeful
presentation.
3. Know your audience. You must present your report so that it
will be meaningful to your audience. Specifically, will your
audience understand the terms, concepts, and relationships
expressed in your presentation? Translate the abstract
comments into specific and concrete examples by use of
charts, handouts, and overhead transparencies. You must
assume that the class has read the case and done some
analysis. Yet, the class may need to be briefly refreshed on
Prepared by Prof. Edward M. De Leon
the subject matter. In reports that are primarily statistical
analysis, charts, diagrams, graphs, models, and handouts are
invaluable aids to clarity and understanding.
4. Prepare your presentation using a topical outline. Prepare
your written and oral reports using a topical outline. Briefly
outline your presentation in your introduction.
5. Use clear exposition, description, and narrative in
developing your report. Expositions give explanations of
terms, concepts and relationships. Descriptions describe facts
and figures.
6. There are few substitutes for prior preparation. A proper
preparation will result in your presentation having the
characteristics of a good speech.
The following are the things to do and avoid in case presentation:
1. Don’t try to cover too much material in the presentation.
Rehearse your presentation to assure that it can be completed
in the allowed time period. Too much material can be
overwhelming.
2. Limit your material to that which is most relevant. Don’t
overwhelm the audience by displaying and discussing
everything you know. Try to go to the heart of the matter in as
little detail as possible. The audience can then ask questions
for additional details. Put details in an appendix that you don’t
necessarily present.
3. Don’t present your case too fast or too slow. Have a lively
pace. Have a contingency plan if your forecast of time is
inaccurate. Your presentation length is dependent on the
number of questions raised in the audience.
4. Practice your presentation. By all means use handouts and
copies of those handouts as transparencies. If your English is
hard to understand, then feel free to read directly from
transparencies.
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Guide to Case Analysis
5. Use good quality transparencies or powerpoint software. Use
larger fonts for transparencies which are also handed out to
the audience. Only transparencies which are extremely easy to
read everywhere in the audience should be used.
6. Don’t try to put too much on a transparency. Don’t try to
duplicate what would be a table in your final write up.
Transparencies are meant to summarize the presentations and
ideas.
7. Avoid long lists of recommendations. Go to the heart of the
cause and effect relationships.
8. Preview and summarize you findings at the introduction and
closure of your report. Remember, tell your audience what you
are going to do, do it, then tell them what you did. Briefly
reviewing the major findings of your presentation is very
important at the beginning and conclusion.
9. Handouts should be correlated with the order of presentation.
Number all handouts and present them in the order of
numbering. If a transparency is added at the last moment and
the audience does not have a copy tell them so, and assure
that it is legible.
10. Stand and present your findings in a way that does not block
the audience’s view of your transparencies. If possible when
using the overhead projector, point to and write on the “table
top” of the overhead projector, do not stand in front of the
screen and point to figures. You block the audience, distract
their attention from the screen, and it is impossible to write
on the overhead screen directly. Be sure to have overhead
pencils, preferable colored pencils.
11. Keep transparencies simple. Keep the level of detail of your
presentation simple, not complex.
Prepared by Prof. Edward M. De Leon
12. There is no substitute for preparation. You must go through at
least one “mock” presentation prior to the real thing. Use a
tape recorder and time your presentation.
13. Don’t overrun the time allowed.
14. Many students spend a great amount of time in analyzing
cases, but then do not have enough time to put together a
good presentation. Good form and substance are necessary for
a good case presentation.
15. Form and substance are both important. Balance your
presentation time between form and substance. Spend 75% of
your presentation time on substance and 50% on form to
achieve a 100% presentation!
16. For a really professional presentation use colored
transparencies. Again, under no circumstances should your
transparencies have small print.
17. Do not bore your audience with facts they already know. Don’t
belabor it when the audience already understands the
concept.
18. Put your presentation together then eliminate all aspects of it
that are either: intuitively obvious to the audience, not that
relevant, minor details which are not worth discussing during
the presentation, or of little importance to the overall theme
of your presentation. Put details in an appendix.
19. Have a distinctly divided presentation of introduction (and
summary), relevant background facts, analysis including cause
and effect discussions, recommendations, and summary and
conclusions.
20. Continued eye contact with the audience is very important.
Try to look at everyone as much as possible. Don’t avoid or
ignore the audience. This is near fatal.
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Guide to Case Analysis
21. Do not be nervous, if you are adequately prepared, no one in
the audience will know more about the subject than you. If
you anticipate being nervous, then be sure to rehearse your
presentation to gain confidence. It is important to relax during
all forms of public exposure. No one is going to physically
attack you during your presentation. Wiggle your toes, feel the
surge of power as your take the podium, and be aware of your
audience’s interest in you and your subject. It can be truly
enjoyable to be in front of a group making presentation. Some
nervousness is always expected. It took more than a decade
before I stopped being a little bit nervous on the first day of
classes each semester.
22. If you have someone who is not being professional in his or her
questioning, do not become defensive. Never become
defensive in your presentation. Never take things personally.
Fell free to disagree at an impersonal level. Some day you will
be able to become aggressive and unemotionally attack and
aggressor, until then, be as kind as possible even when there
are jerks in the audience. Never say anything unkind, but you
can disagree with the line of reasoning or assertions made by
those in the audience.
23. Encourage questions from the audience. A good presentation
will stimulate questions from the audience.
24. Use this document as a check list. Don’t fail to study and use
it!
25. Review the other material on case analysis that I have
provided you!
THE ROLE OF FINANCIAL ANALYSIS
Another important aspect of analyzing a case study and writing a case
study analysis is the role and use of financial information. A careful
analysis of the company's financial condition immensely improves a
case write-up. After all, financial data represent the concrete results
of the company's strategy and structure. Although analyzing financial
statements can be quite complex, a general idea of a company's
Prepared by Prof. Edward M. De Leon
financial position can be determined through the use of ratio analysis.
Financial performance ratios can be calculated from the balance sheet
and income statement. These ratios can be classified into five
different subgroups: profit ratios, liquidity ratios, activity ratios,
leverage ratios, and shareholder-return ratios. These ratios should be
compared with the industry average or the company's prior years of
performance. It should be noted, however, that deviation from the
average is not necessarily bad; it simply warrants further investigation.
For example, young companies will have purchased assets at a
different price and will likely have a different capital structure than
older companies. In addition to ratio analysis, a company's cash flow
position is of critical importance and should be assessed. Cash flow
shows how much actual cash a company possesses.
CONCLUSION
When evaluating a case, it is important to be systematic. Analyze the
case in a logical fashion, beginning with the identification of operating
and financial strengths and weaknesses and environmental
opportunities and threats. Move on to assess the value of a company's
current strategies only when you are fully conversant with the SWOT
analysis of the company. Ask yourself whether the company's current
strategies make sense, given its SWOT analysis. If they do not, what
changes need to be made? What are your recommendations? Above all,
link any strategic recommendations you may make to the SWOT
analysis. State explicitly how the strategies you identify take
advantage of the company's strengths to exploit environmental
opportunities, how they rectify the company's weaknesses, and how
they counter environmental threats. Also, do not forget to outline
what needs to be done to implement your recommendations.
15